UN Agency on Israeli PM Threat: 'We're Not A Light Bulb You Can Turn on, off'

Rasa - Commenting on Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s strong statement, Christopher Gunness, Director of Advocacy and Strategic Communications at UNRWA, countered that the agency’s humanitarian and human development mission enjoys strong UN General Assembly support.

News ID: 435709

Date: 10 January 2018 - 04:47

RNA - "The General assembly pays tribute regularly to what it calls 'indispensable contribution to peace and security'," Gunnes stressed, adding that "It is the failure of the political parties to deal with the refugee issue – that’s what perpetuates the problem", Sputnik reported.

"The refugee crisis needs to be resolved by the parties to the conflict in the context of peace talks, needs to be based on the UN resolutions and international law. That’s what’s perpetuating it, not the UN agency which is there to serve the humanitarian or human development needs of the very marginalized population," he said.

Gunness continued by saying that they are a living institution, "not a light bulb you can turn on and off."

Addressing the questions over the future of their UN agency, Gunness underlined that it has a good working relationship with all its donors and is working closely with them to try and "dig ourselves out of what is certainly a severe structural financial crisis."

"Although UNRWA is not a political actor, we are a humanitarian actor dealing with the consequence of political failure, and every hour that passes, those consequences become more and more severe," he stressed.

UNRWA vowed to continue its work after Israeli Prime Minister called for it to be scrapped.

In a series of tweets on Sunday evening, a Spokesperson for the UN agency said it would continue providing help to Palestinian refugees until the international community comes up with a solution for their plight.

"UNRWA is assigned by the General Assembly to continue its services until a fair solution to Palestinian refugees issue is reached," UNRWA official Sami Mushasha noted.

His comments came shortly after Netanyahu called for the agency to be scrapped, accusing it of helping "fictitious refugees".

"UNRWA is an organization that perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem and the narrative of the right-of-return, as it were, in order to eliminate the State of Israel," the Israeli leader said, adding the development agency needed "to pass from the world".

The agency plays a significant role in supporting Palestinian refugees with access to education, healthcare, social services and employment in the occupied Palestinian territories, and in neighboring states.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homes in historic Palestine by Zionist militias during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and later by the Israeli army during the 1967 war.

Today, those refugees and their descendants total more than five million people.

Netanyahu's comments come less than a week after US President Donald Trump threatened to cut off American funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) for not showing enough "appreciation or respect" towards the United States.

"With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?" Trump asked.

Analysts have warned that if the US leader follows through with the threat and the withdrawal of aid includes funds earmarked for UNRWA, there would be a big strain on the PA to cover those costs.

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